The NLNL Story

At the heart of No Lights No Lycra (NLNL) is the belief that everyone can dance. NLNL is a global dance community providing an inclusive and non-judgmental place for people to explore this notion. NLNL brings people together to experience freedom of self-expression and joy.

No Lights No Lycra is an dance community that started in Melbourne by unruly dance students Alice Glenn and Heidi Barrett in 2009. There is no light, no lycra, no teacher, no steps to learn, no technique, just free movement. NLNL is a space where you can completely let go, shake out the stresses of the week, and lose yourself in the music and the physicality of your body. NLNL is a daggy, non-pretentious place to completely be yourself.

“This is a pure and spiritual experience, releasing that urge to shake and doing it without dealing with the social nuances of dancing in public”
– Greenpointers Blog, Brooklyn NY

“Many of the constraints of our modern society can be transcended through dancing in this environment, gender and sexuality become irrelevent, and space is negotiated without words or power struggle.”
– Laura Morgan, NLNL Dancer, Melbourne.

HISTORY OF NLNL

On a cold wintry Tuesday night in June 2009, five people walked through the doors of St Marks Church Hall in Fitzroy, Melbourne. In the winter darkness, the light glow of the heaters and a portrait of Amma the Hugging Saint looking down upon them, No Lights No Lycra was launched to the song Rien de Rien by Edith Piath. The dance night grew through word of mouth and within a few months the hall was full of people who shared the same yearning for a dimly lit space to dance as freely as they do in their living rooms.